KUCHING: Come Wednesday (Oct 1), Mas Gading MP Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe will take over from Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye as National Service Training Council (MLKN) chairman.

Dr Tiki will make history as the first Sarawakian to hold such an important advisory position, which may include policy-making.

He is also expected to help the country improve race relations and national integration.

When met during the weekend, Dr Tiki — who is also Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) vice president — said the appointment was both an honour and a wonderful challenge.

He said the first thing he would do as chairman was work on improving race relations among trainees, as well as public relations between National Service (NS) camps and members of the public, especially parents.

Dr Tiki said race relations, which had become an issue in Peninsular Malaysia, would be a priority because patriotism was not possible unless people felt ‘at home’.

“We must improve on race and human relations apart from the national integration aspect. Once people feel at ease, respect, and accept each other, automatically they will feel at home and patriotism will come in naturally,” he said.

“When we love each other and feel at home, we will not have to force people to become patriotic. This will be natural.”

He added that the NS programme might need some revision because of the latest controversies in the country involving race and religion.

“They have been brought up over and over again and these have become the main concern of the society and country.

“It might have strained our human relationships. We must make sure that the whole (NS) programme meets the requirements of the current environment,” he said.

“From the very beginning of the programme it was aimed at strengthening national integration and racial harmony, but lately these two issues remain our concerns. We really have to look deeply into race relations,” he stressed.

Dr Tiki thanked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also Defence Minister, for being ‘personally responsible for suggesting my name be included as one of the potential candidates for this post’.

He also thanked Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who proposed him to the cabinet and sought consent from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, as well as National Service director general Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang Kechik, for following up the process of his appointment.

“Everybody, including the cabinet members, are very supportive of me. I am very touched.

“I also thank committee members of the National Service Training Council for being very supportive of me,” said the former deputy minister of rural and regional development.

Dr Tiki disclosed that when he was Deputy Minister of Unity and National Integration, he was among those instrumental in developing the working paper on NS, along with former special officer the late Simon Ong.

He said Malaysia’s NS did not follow the model of other countries, which has been said to be too military-like and the ‘last line of defence’.

The initial proposal came from the then Ministry of Unity and National Integration in 2001, but the current programme, which began in 2003, is under the purview of the Ministry of Defence.

Dr Tiki added that he would also like to see the programme’s health aspects and camp facilities improved.

“But whatever it is, we still have to re-look the whole programme before we can make decisions on improvement,” he said.

Meanwhile SPDP deputy president Datuk Peter Nyarok Entrie said he was proud of Dr Tiki’s appointment because the federal government had chosen a Sarawakian as MLKN chairman.

“Of course as a deputy president of the party, I am also proud that the newly appointed chairman of the (MLKN) Council comes from SPDP,” he said when met yesterday.

Nyarok also thanked the federal and state governments for giving Dr Tiki the opportunity to hold the post, which he personally considered important as far as national integration and unity are concerned.

There are currently 87 NS camps in the country, including eight in Sarawak.